Holy Garden

Namaste Beloveds,

In this incredible Holy Week that encompasses St. Patrick's Day, Spring Equinox & Easter, may you remember to be the master gardner of your family's spiritual garden honoring all the crosses that are yours to bear or bare, and all the renewal and resurrection that is possible when surrendering these crosses to THE Master Gardner. As I navigate the choices, rejoices, voices, invoices, depressions, regressions, obsessions, possessions of my current garden full of seeds sown and yet to be known, I breathe into the Holy and what it means to be presented with the gifts of this Holy Week full of happy holidays. Today is the glorious celebration of Palm Sunday:
Jesus symbolizes our I AM identity. His going up to Jerusalem means our taking the last step in unfoldment preparatory to the final step, when the personality is entirely crucified and the Christ triumps. Jesus riding the ass into Jerusalem means the fulfillment of the time when the spiritual I AM within us takes control and lifts all the animal forces up to the spiritual plane of mastery, purity, peace.  ~Charles Fillmore
I am so ready for this spiritual triumph, I AM, I AM! In surrendering all to the Master Gardner, I have found layers upon layers of disempowering yuck, seen more clearly than I would like, how I have been perpetuating my crosses to bear and bare, and ultimately further surrendering all that I do not and perhaps can not understand. I have been staying cradled in the Heart of Love this last month ... attending memorial services, embracing another solitary Valentine's Day reawakening the realization of the depth of an ongoing unrequited love that somehow I've allowed ~ ultimate lack! Trips to the desert and the exquisite Valley Of Fire, working in Las Vegas schools, going to the Caribbean in Cancun so Jeremiah could visit his dad and grandpa, experiencing the beauty there as well as the gross commercialism & overpopulation and the simple, undelveloped Mayan villages just 2 hours away. Going through emotional turbulance with these and other relationships with the constant invitation and dedication to turn and return to Love. There has been SO MUCH in my outer and inner life this last month, that only my morning prayer practice keeps me whole. In taking time with the Holy, I can connect with the hope, faith, peace, love, beauty and grace that surely live in me. I am able to affirm the I AM even when it seems too far away to be real. In truth, it is the only thing that is real. And so, I am spending time in the garden this Holy Week, my own Gethsemane, I suppose. Gethsemane is symbolic of the struggle that takes place within the consciousness when truth is realized as the one reality.  ~Charles Fillmore
I bid you all great blessings in your own gardens this Holy Week of renewal. Remember that all seeds need some darkness to sprout. And that painful fertilizer always somehow make us wiser. Wherever you are in your garden, germinating, sprouting or already enjoying full bloom, I celebrate you and this gift of life. I celebrate the death and birth in the cycle of life so apparent in spring and in all that is holy. It is all Holy Spirit in action.

Holy Holidays!
A holiday is a holy day, and holiness doesn't happen to us. Holiness is a choice we make, and holidays are portals of energy through which the experience of things that matter most is increased within us and in the world in which we live. 
~Marianne Williamson
Holidays are holy days of remembrance and celebration and they are also known as a time of rest, vacation, or leave of absence. This Holy Week is rare in that it also holds St. Patrick's Day and Spring Equinox. St. Patrick's Day was a religious holiday only until 1903 when it became celebrated around the world with many fun festivities including large parades, and the wearing and eating of green. Every year the Chicago River is dyed green:

For Roman Catholics, it is a celebration; the date of the feast is occasionally moved by church authorities when March 17 falls during Holy Week; this happened in 1940 when Saint Patrick's Day was observed on 3 April in order to avoid it coinciding with Palm Sunday, and is happening again now, in 2008, being observed on 15 March (though the State holiday in Ireland is not affected). March 17 will not fall during Holy Week again until 2160! St. Patrick's life was miraculous. As a slave captive, he prayed daily for 6 years until he heard that his ship had indeed come in. Upon his return home he had a vision, I saw a man coming, as it were from Ireland. His name was Victoricus, and he carried many letters, and he gave me one of them. I read the heading: "The Voice of the Irish". As I began the letter, I imagined in that moment that I heard the voice of those very people who were near the wood of Foclut, which is beside the western sea—and they cried out, as with one voice: "We appeal to you, holy servant boy, to come and walk among us." ~St. Patrick
He spent his whole life ministering to empower the holy in everyone and his ministry goes on today. Even in the playfulness of green rivers and clothing, our Spirits rise to the joy that is our wholy truth. Holiness abounds this Holy Week! Of course in the traditional sense of Jesus' crucifiction and resurrection and all that it teaches us about our own spiritual evolution but also in the mirror of the Easter holiday of Equinox and the rebirth of Spring. Easter Sunday can fall on any date from March 22 to April 25th. The year-to-year sequence is so complicated that it takes 5.7 million years to repeat. Equinox generally is March 20 or 21st. This balance day of equal light is celebrated in many ways around the world and is associated with fertitilty and rebirth. We visited ancient Mayan ruins last week where the temple lights up with a snake only at the 2 equinox points of the year. In so many ways, throughout history, people have found ways to honor, value, celebrate the Holy in conjunction with nature and spirit manifestations of all kinds. Many rituals will honor the equinox and Easter with some cross-over. Some believe that one can only balance an egg within a few hours before or after the exact time of the equinox ` would that be before or after the Easter Bunny hides them?!

The Holy Spirit is not a metaphor or a symbol; it is a living, alchemical power that infuses our hearts with the glory of God.
~Marianne Williamson

Season of Peace

I believe the more time we spend running our deep inner peace circuitry, then the more peace we will project into the world, and ultimately the more peace we will have on the planet. ~ Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor

We are celebrating the Season of Peace and Nonviolence! We added a few fabulous videos to the site this week. Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor is essentially a brain scientist who went through a massive stroke at age 37 ane experienced nirvana. What and how she explains her awakening is a major WOW. Her video is on our site and linked to the TED site where she spoke and where they have an amazing plethora of inspirational videos and content. We also loaded a video from Abraham (Esther & Jerry Hicks of Ask And It Is Given) that gives a wonderful, powerful version of how to relate the story of Dr. King to our youth. It really is all about perspective and peace really does begin with me ... and you ... and him ... and her ... and us ...

Season for Peace and Unity FM online radio broadcast! Monday, March 17th at 12:00 noon Pacific and 3:00 p.m. Eastern featuring the Association for Global New Thought's Barbara Fields and Michael Beckwith. Also Melissa Morgan, Human Dignity Officer from the city of Long Beach, CA and Rev. Ellen Grace O'Brian from the Center for Spiritual Enlightenment in San Jose, CA. They will be on Unity FM director Mindy Audin's show, The Leading Edge. Listen and be inspired!   
 
I believe that his dream still lives. There are those who are still dreaming the dream. When we come into alignment with who we are, the resources of the universe come into alignment with us and all dreams are answered, from all perspectives no matter who is asking. ~ Abraham

New Thought Family Retreats!
"We are all a circle of  love ~ hand in hand, we hold
what we're made of. We are all a circle of Love."
New Thought Families continue to circle up to play & pray!  

We have a new picture video of the Feathers Of Faith campout here:
http://www.newthoughtfamilies.com/Camp/FeathersFollowUp.html

Seeds Of Peace Day Retreat: We are planting these seeds in renewal of self acceptance & inner peace, ritual of remembrance (the Season is more than the Easter Bunny!) and celebration of US in connection & community NEXT SATURDAY ...
Join us in JOY!
A very special Day Retreat offered for the Season Of Peace,
Spring Equinox & Easter in the Ecumenical Garden & Farm Pastures!
"Seeds Of Peace" Spring Retreat: March 22, 2008
Piccolo Pastures Retreat Center, Elk Grove, CA

This is a wonderful day opportunity to take a short drive and step into tranquility, love, peace and joy! We will play & pray at Piccolo Pastures with their animals and beautiful Ecumenical Garden. We will honor the Spring Equinox & a planet of One Heart, plant seeds of peace and have a life & love affirming Easter egg hunt. Fun for all ages! Let us affirm the Holy in these holidays and in each other. Please RSVP by 3/19 with online registration or by contacting Laurie, 209.217.7467.
It is not for nothing that the Holy Spirit is called "the Comforter". We are emotionally healed as we allow ourselves to surrender to the sanctity of a spirit-filled ceremony. We feel our souls have been bathed in light.  ~Marianne Williamson

In The Garden
May you plant wonderful seeds of peace, Love, goodness and blessings this Holy Week. May you plant with us in the Ecumenical garden this Saturday! Wherever you are in your journey, may you find peace in the garden cradled in the heart of Love and the Master Gardner's hand ...

Dear Mother/Father/God,
I meet you, I greet you
in the garden of my mind.
I pray for renewal in this fresh springtime.
I gratefully lay my crosses at your feet;
my burdens, losses, pain, blame, shame, grief.
I surrender all these defeating thoughts of explanation,
each another nail on my cross of condemnation ...
I release feeling like a wild weed
in Your splendid garden of rejuvenation.
Master Gardner, surely we are both weary of this unworthiness,
I shed this latest layer, leave it behind now in the darkness ...
I bury it now as fertilizer embracing the bloom in me that is wiser ...
In fertile soil, I release the toil
and embrace the faith
that grows the Truth of me.
I die. I awake. Expanded I see ...
Fully surrendered, accepted, forgiven & pardoned
renewed and relieved ... I Am born, holy, again, in the garden.
~Laurie Story

In the name of all that is Holy ... Namaste, Love, namaste.